Fra Bartolomeo

Fra Bartolomeo was a leading painter of the High Renaissance in Florence, known for calm, balanced religious pictures with grand, idealised figures and soft light. His Madonnas and saints are dignified and still, arranged in clear, symmetrical groups.

Born Baccio della Porta near Prato, he trained with Cosimo Rosselli and worked with Mariotto Albertinelli. He was a follower of the preacher Savonarola, whose portrait he painted, and in 1500 he became a Dominican friar, giving up painting for several years. He later worked with Raphael, and each learned from the other.

His Vision of Saint Bernard and his portrait of Savonarola are in Florence, and his works are also in the Louvre and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Look at the stable, pyramid-shaped groups and the soft shadows, which influenced Raphael.